Hindu Pilgrimages in Rajasthan

There are literally thousands of temples and pilgrimage centres in Rajasthan. However, few have come to known as major pilgrimage centres for Indians as well as overland travellers.

• Brahma Temple – Brahma, the Lord who is a creator according to the Hinduism seems to take the full advantage of the temple where he is probably the principle deity in the whole world. Not only did he perform a yagna or ritual fire ceremony here, he also dropped a lotus from his hands to create the lake where people bathe before offering him prayers. A silver turtle at the entrance of the marble temple is a symbol of his means of transport.

Pushkar is best known for its Brahma temple, though it is by no means the only temple here, with as many as four hundred temples lining the banks of the lake. Spires form a skyline that, when the vesper bells ring, is worthy of the kingdom of Hindu epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata.

• Eklingji Temple, Udaipur – The founder of the Mewar dynasty that ruled from Chittaurgarh, Bappa Rawal had a miraculous dream in which he prayed before an image of Shiva that resulted in the removal of a problem that had been troubling him in his waking hours. He resolved then to build a temple to Shiva, and so the complex had its genesis, 24 km north of Udaipur. Eklingji consists of a complex of 108 temples, coinciding with the number of beads in the rudrakash necklace that sadhus use for meditation. The temple dedicated to Eklingji is the tallest of them all, its black stone idol a representation of the linga with four faces that have four images in the cardinal directions f Surya, Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra.
  
• Govind Devji Temple – The family temple for the Kachchwahas of Jaipur, and open to the public, the idols in the temple, brought here from Vrindavan, are believed to have been carved by Vajranath, one of the greatest sculptors of the time, and the grandson of Krishna. The temple was consecrated as part of the City Palace complex by Sawai Jai Singh II. A simple temple, with an open pavilion surrounded by columns, and with a tiered courtyard, obeisance and ritual worship at the temple is deemed high on the scale of merit.